coaching

As someone who loves to cook, I am totally in line with the logic of mise en place. Thinking of it in the first ten minutes of your day makes perfect sense to me. Putting everything in it’s place is a way of getting organized for your day. Even if it’s just putting out the things you will need for your day, it helps get your mind ready for the day to come. Read the rest of this article from Psychology Today…

If you’re working in the kitchen of Anthony Bourdain, legendary chef of Brasserie Les Halles, best-selling author, and famed television personality, you don’t dare so much as boil hot water without attending to a ritual that’s essential for any self-respecting chef: mise-en-place.The “Meez,” as professionals call it, translates as “everything in its place.” In practice, it involves studying a recipe; thinking through the tools and equipment you will need; and assembling the ingredients in the right proportion—before you begin. It is the planning phase of every meal, the moment when chefs evaluate the totality of what they are trying to achieve and create an action plan for the work ahead.

For the experienced chef, mise-en-place is more than a quaint practice or time-saving technique. It’s a state of mind.

“Mise-en-place is the religion of all good line cooks,” Bourdain wrote in his bestselling Kitchen Confidential. “As a cook, your station, and its condition, its state of readiness, is an extension of your nervous system….The universe is in order when your station is set.”

Chefs like Bourdain have long appreciated that when it comes to exceptional cooking, the single most important ingredient of any dish is planning. It’s the “Meez” that forces Bourdain to think ahead, that saves him from having to distractedly search for items, and that allows him to channel his full attention to the dish before him.

This is the latest post by a blogger I follow called Mark Manson. This takes ten minutes to read and it’s worth every minute of it!In the early 1980s, a talented young guitarist was kicked out of his band. The band had just been signed to their first record contract, and they were preparing to record their first album. A week before recording began, they fired the guitarist. There was no warning, no discussion. The guitarist woke up one day and was handed a bus ticket home.

The guitarist was demoralized. He felt betrayed. No one considered his side of the story. No one cared how he felt. At the most crucial moment of the band’s short career, he was abandoned by those he trusted the most.

So he vowed to start a band of his own. He would start a band so amazing and so successful that his old band would regret ever firing him. He would become so famous that they would spend the rest of their lives thinking about what a horrible mistake they had made. His ambition would make them pay for their disrespect.

He recruited even better musicians than before. He wrote and rehearsed religiously. His desire for revenge fueled his passion. His rage ignited his creativity. Within a couple years, his new band had signed a record contract of their own and was taking off.

The guitarist’s name was Dave Mustaine, and the band he formed was called Megadeth. Megadeth would go on to sell over 25 million albums and tour the world many times over. Today, Mustaine is considered one of the most brilliant and influential musicians in all of heavy metal music.

Unfortunately, the band he was kicked out of was called Metallica. Metallica has since sold over 180 million albums worldwide, and they are considered by many to be the greatest heavy metal band of all time.

And because of this, in a rare intimate interview in 2003, a tearful Mustaine admitted that he couldn’t help but still consider himself a failure at times. Despite all he had accomplished, he was still the guy who got kicked out of Metallica. Tens of millions of albums sold. Concerts given to screaming stadiums of fans. Millions of dollars earned. And yet, a failure.